Still, I've been very much looking forward to this board, as it presents features that Zotac and others don't. 5 SATA ports. RAID on H55. USB 3.0. Possible OC capabilities. Etc. With this board I can run an SSD, two 1TB drives in RAID 0, my DVDrom drive, and still have that last eSATA for my external.Reply

After noticing any mention of RAID being absent from this new iteration of the announcement, I started digging, checking the site, downloading PDFs, etc. It would appear all RAID support has been dropped from this board.

This board might as well be a brick. Such a waste. The only thing it has going for it now is USB3.0, and that isn't enough to even consider buying it. So disappointing.

I wish someone would buy you a clue. RAID 5 is quite useful in upping capacity, while preserving redundancy. Some people do indeed require more than 2 TB (max single hard disk) of space for backed up games, movies (DVD/Blu-Ray), music, applications, photos, system backups, etc., hence why these boxes are commonly dual-purpose media-centers and NAS appliances. RAID 5 allows you to put 4 x 2TB disks in and still benefit from 6 TB of continuous space, which prevents waste, and single-disk redundancy.Reply

Wow, another dateless wonder I see. As I said, I don't use RAID and it's not needed in miniITX systems which are meant for HTPCs and the like. Unless you're using such a system to store a lot of pirated movies, you don't even need a large hard drive.Reply

Yeah, no one uses a mATX system as a hybrid media center and NAS, right. And relying on a single hard drive to keep irreplaceable system backups, home movies and photos safe sounds real smart too. No one could possibly want redundancy and have high capacity needs.

/sarcasm

Because YOU don't understand the value in it, doesn't mean there isn't value in it.Reply

Yeah, 2TB of irreplaceable data like photos and home movies... with that Torrent program used to download Linux distributions. Please... you're either a pirate with terabytes of illegal movies and software (which are hardly worthy of redundant storage) or you don't need more than 15-20 GB for your irreplaceable backups (just as safe to put them on an external drive and/or DVD and/or encrypted online). In any case it's stupid to use a miniITX and then bitch about how it doesn't have some obscure feature that only virgins know about.Reply

I have to agree with the troll (with the exception on the dateless/virgin stuff). The raid feature really isn't a deal-breaker. No one in my family needs that type of functionality in their computers. The reality is that I've just bought them 1-2 TB external drives and something like the WD media players to run movies, pictures and music. I keep everything backed up at my place.Something that size is mostly going to be used for a small system. I don't even bother with RAID because every piece of software I run fits on a 16Gig flashdrive in my fire file and I keep a couple back up HDD's in there also. It's not worth the extra juice for redundancy or speed.BTW... the conversation has been amusing to read through. Not too blue.Reply

This box is going to travel up and down Norway, between my brother's place, sister-in-law's (and her husband's) place, and my wife's mother's place (where my wife's brother also lives). We are all avid gamers, but we all share files amongst each other as well. This is a LAN box, not an HTPC; built for easy transport. But why the Hell wouldn't I want RAID? Are you honestly that feeble? Performance for one, redundancy for another.

It's an H55 board, so it wouldn't be able to support Intel RAID anyway. You have to have an H57 chipset to get RAID. Well, that or install another chip on there, and I honestly don't see to much empty room.Reply

I was looking at this board and noticed it was just put up on Gigabyte website yesterday. I couldn't find out if you could use x1 cards in that x16 slot from the manual or other places. Would have considered it for a new build but it would have been $100 more total and I wasn't sure when it would be for sale and how much. So I went with, the microATX H55M-USB3 and a Mt Jade In-win case. Reply

Ugh... that's definitely not suited for a HTPC (one of mini-ITX's nice uses) for quite a few reasons. Really disappointing to see such a case come out of Lian-Li too, but I haven't seen a great case from them since they dropped the PC-V1/2xxx series.Reply

My gaming rig is a full size ATX with only one slot used for the graphics. If I can get an i7 and a graphics card on a m-ITX, then ATX holds no advantages for me. I'm done with the ATX form factor.Reply

People are hating on this beautiful, well engineered, perfectly laid out board because it doesn't have RAID? Buy a dang external if you need backups... if you need RAID, buy a board for enthusiasts, because as much as you may deny it, in the consumer market, RAID is in the enthusiast section. Heck, I'm a computer enthusiast as well, but I have never seen myself using RAID for any real purpose.Reply

Are we ever going to see a really good VRM section on mITX boards? (Pending hands-on reviews of this board of course.) I don't buy the 'limited space' argument, there are mATX boards that clock very well and don't use rediculous bajillion phase VRM sections that get hyped by the marketing department. FWIR it's all about component cost not space. The mobo makers release $300++ boards but won't add $10-20 in components to make higher-end mITX boards? Put an H57 on it and give it a well engineered power section to make the 'premium' version please.

I hope someone realizes this, even DFI has missed the mark, I've been pondering mITX using the IGP for my next build (I'll be done with gaming entirely by then) but am waiting until Sandy Bridge/Bulldozer anyway. I would love to have a nice solid CPU overclock to retain CPU power.Reply

This is the first mini ITX board that pretty much does it for me as a NAS/HTPC playback device. yes .. I need RAID but with that big 'ol 16x PCIe sticking out there .. a good 8x RAID 5 card ( expensive ... true and if I don't choose to use software raid ( icky-poo) ) I can serve as backup to my Audio Video and Software synthesis platform Mastering studio and about as many HD flat screens as I choose... and my girlfriend will be happy not to know about the redundancy of RAID-5 or RAID-6 --- but she does anyway cause she is a Nerd Like me ... Enjoy but if you cant .. there is something out there for you ..Reply

You have only one computer in all of your house? You are using a mini for a LAN/Gamer/NAS and HTPC?

I am not saying you need something for every application, but I would like to have a low power use system for my NAS, a TINY machine for my HTPC, and a small one for my main system that can still fit a decent vid card (And be able to fit it, the chip with its cooler fan and a power supply in a compact case).

This looks like a good vid card might be difficult to fit next to the chip... I may be wrong.

Anyway, back to RAID. As someone who upped his 5 disk 500G (each) raid to a 4 disk 1.5TB (each) array, I can see why RAID 5 is so desired. But to fit enough stuff on a NAS, you need at least 3 disks in RAID 5. Once you start getting to that many disks, "mini" is no longer a major concern.

As for striping it in 0, what's the point? Load times? 1 2TB and an SSD should do the trick....

As for backups while bringing your machine all around creation, you could just do it the old fashioned way and put it in two places (like I do, keeping them on the CF and putting them on the laptop, until I get home and transfer to the NAS).

Question for all, suggestions on a full assembly on this sucker for a gaming machine? Would this be something that would give the Shuttle boxes a good run for the money?Reply

I absolutely don't understand why all the fuss about the lack of RAID support with this mini-itx board.

If you run RAID, don't you also need a case that's big enough to house at least two disk drives? How many ITX cases can you find that can house two HDDs (in addition to the usual ODD)???

OK you may argument, you could put the system in a mATX or full size case. Then why in the world would you want to pay a premium for a mini-itx board when you can get more for less $$ by buying a mATX or full size board? The power savings between a mITX and mATX is not that much.

To me, mITX is all about compact size. If that's not your primary objective when building a system then you're looking at the wrong product.Reply